What a Liberal Wants

Liberals have to ask themselves what they want before deciding on any candidate.

The race to lead the Liberal Party is starting to heat up, and as the Globe and Mail reported this mourning, a number of tiers are starting to take form. That is not to say the race is a foregone conclusion: there is still time for someone to come out of the woodwork, or for an also-ran to impress the Liberal masses and make him/herself a serious contender.

Before people start lining up behind candidates, it is probably time for the Liberal party members to ask themselves an important question: what kind of mandate does the next leader of the Liberal party have? Are the Liberals planning on unseating the Tories in the next election, or are they looking torwards building for the future? Once that question is decided it will become a lot easier to qualify what qualities the Liberals need in a future leader.

In an ideal world, the Liberals would fine an experienced, bilingual, female, Albertan to lead them into an election. Many liberals realize that in order to stay on top they have to make their party appear less Toronto-centric, or at least Central-Canada centric. Since said candidate doesn’t appear to be on the horizon, who is the next best thing?

The problem with the two obvious front-runners, Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae, is that no Air Canada jetliner exists with a cargo-hold big enough to carry all of their baggage. Rae will not be able to escape the fact that he was the worst premier of Ontario in recent memory. Granted, not all of that was his fault, but it’s a quick and easy thing to say, stick on a bumper sticker, or throw into a commercial.

Ignatieff suffers from being unknown outside of universities and not very well liked withn them. Ignatieff by all means should be the candidate of young liberals, as young people will naturally gravitate towards people who they are familiar with their environment. The problem is that few trust him because of his support for the Iraq war and dodgy comments on the use of torture. Ignatieff may try to state that he bore less responsibility than a head of state in backing the Bush administration, but as a public intellectual he has to be held accountable for creating an ideological launching pad for a reckless administration. Ignatieff could have easily said, “I would support a removal of Saddam Hussein, but not one that is illegal.” The problem is though, he didn’t. He lined up behind the Bush administration, and few are going to easily forget or forgive. Furthermore, let’s not forget that the man spent the past 30 years living abroad, only to come home to run for office. As Jeffery Simpson pointed out on Saturday, would any other country permit a man to pull off such an act? Could you envision an American living in the U.K. for 30 years, only to return for the democratic primaries? I doubt it!

The one candidate who I am starting to like more and more is former Ontario Education minister Gerard Kennedy. At first I thought it was rather presumptuous for a minister in a provincial government to think he could run and win the Federal Liberal Leadership, but the more I read about him the more I think he could in fact be the man for the job.

There are many reasons why I think he could be the candidate to watch. First of all, although he’s currently a resident of Ontario, his roots are in the west. Second, his background includes a lot of social work, which is always a plus for politicians who want to portray themselves as connected to the average Canadian. Thirdly, he’s bilingual. Finally, if he as popular in Ontario as everyone says he is, he could very well reverse the trend in that province towards Stephen Harper. By keeping Ontario from turning Tory blue, the Liberals could at least manage to hold the Conservatives to a minority government for quite some time. Finally, he is young enough that even if the Liberals loose the next election, come the next one he still wont be receiving CPP. The more time Canadians have to get to know him the better.

Lastly, I want to say that I think Belinda Stronach made the right decision in staying out of the race. Unlike others who will run just so that the rest of us don’t forget who they are, Belinda does not have that need. She can take the next 8-10 years to develop into a solid, bilingual candidate with extensive parliamentary experience. In the meantime, I applaud her efforts to change the way Liberals elect their leaders. I wish her the best of luck.